Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and relates in particular to devices supporting two wireless protocols which are not permitted to operation simultaneously, either by protocol definition or by functional limitation of hardware.
Background
There are devices that support two wireless protocols which, by their own definitions, are not permitted to operate simultaneously, either by protocol definition or by functional limitation of hardware. A very common and important example of such a configuration is where a phone may be connected wirelessly to a smartwatch, as shown in FIG. 1 prior art below, over two Bluetooth protocols:
1. Bluetooth Basic Rate/Extended Data Rate (BR/EDR) Controller—hereby referred to as Bluetooth Classic (BT) and
2. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Controller
In the scenario shown in FIG. 1 prior art, both devices support the two protocols, but may only be connected using one of the two, at any given time, as is apparent in FIG. 2 prior art which shows the status of the phone in such a situation. The smartwatch in this case connects either as a BT device called e.g. Martian Watch, or as a BLE device called e.g. Martian Smart, as is shown connected in FIG. 2 prior art. It has to be understood that the application shown in FIG. 2 prior art is only an example of communication problems with devices supporting two wireless protocols which are not permitted to operate simultaneously, either by protocol definition or by functional limitation of hardware.
BT is used for voice applications, such as voice commands and phone calls, and BLE is used by many phones for data notifications generated by apps such as emails, messages, and news. Both protocols are essential for a smartwatch that supports voice as well as notification functions, even though they cannot be in connected states simultaneously. To require manual settings by the users to switch mode every time would be extremely inconvenient.
It is a challenge to designers of communication devices to achieve methods by which a device such as e.g. the smartwatch can provide the appearance of simultaneous connections to the user, in that there is seamless transitions between the modes of operations between the two protocols and that all functions are made available to the user without explicit mode-switching by the user.